Tips, tricks and advice for bloggers

1. Blogcraft
or tips and tricks for bloggers
Andy Priestner, Cambridge Judge Business School

2. A unique
life form
 Blogging is a unique literary
form with its own rules and
techniques
 Latitude for different writing
styles, but generally more
informal and personal
 Immediate global
publishing, no barriers to entry
 Commentary from, and
interaction with, readers is key

3. Find
your
voice
 Imbue your posts with
personality and character
 Don’t be tempted to be
formal and dry (it can still be
professional)
 Think conversation rather
than broadcast
 Consider your audience at
all times

4. Short or long?
 Most say aim for concise and scannable
 But, sometimes it’s good (and right) to
explore in more depth
 Use subheadings to structure longer posts
 As long as its interesting, post length is
irrelevant

5. Entertain
your
audience
 Incorporate
humour, everyone wants to be
entertained
 Will help to show your
personality and build audience
 Makes your posts memorable

6. Converse
 Ask questions
 Employ ‘calls to action’
 Allow and respond to
comments
 It’s not just about you, make
it a conversation if you can

7. frequency
Time and
frequency
 Once you have an audience, seek
to retain them
 You can blog too much: “Hasn’t
he/she got anything better to do?”
 At least once a month, but ideally
more frequently
 Hit the zeitgeist!

8. Use hooks
 Craft a blogpost title that will make people
want to read it (it’s often the only thing that
will make people click through)
 The title should also convey the benefits of
reading the post and/or be the post in a
nutshell’
 Provoke controversy or debate
 Try a clever or compelling opening – a
quote, an anecdote, a statistic, a question
(think start of a great talk)

9. Make it
beautiful
 A picture paints a thousand words
 They forge emotional connections
 They grab attention
 Charts and diagrams add depth

10. Promote
your posts
 Allow readers to follow your blog
 Tweet your post
 Comment on other blogs
 Use internal links
 Write a follow-up post

11. Communicate
your passion
 ...for the subject matter
 Explain your point of view
 Care and others will care too

12. Make your
posts
findable
 Categorise your posts
 Use tags
 Think about the keywords you use

13. So what?
 Readers should not be able to
say ‘so what?’ in response to
your posts
 Consider your point carefully.
Do you have a goal for your
post?
 How does the post benefit
your readers?
 What impact does the post
make?
 What ambitions do you have
for your blog?

14. The more you blog the
better you will blog (fact)

15. All images sourced from Flickr Creative Commons
Credits:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jakebryant
http://www.flickr.com/photos/azrasta/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/danialvarezfotos/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/drakegoodman
http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_lightwave
http://www.flickr.com/photos/darwinbell
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mutantmandias
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stuckincustoms
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dexxus
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nalbertini
http://www.flickr.com/photos/practicalowl
http://www.flickr.com/photos/minow
http://www.flickr.com/photos/waltstoneburner
http://www.flickr.com/photos/antoniocha
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ilouque

16. Happy blogpost
crafting!
Blog: libreaction.wordpress.com
Twitter: @PriestLib
Email: ap547@cam.ac.uk
LinkedIn: uk.linkedin.com/in/andypriestner/